Curried Pineapple Cupcakes

I've come to the realization that keeping up with a blog takes a lot of motivation that I'm frankly unable to muster often enough in order to contribute regularly.  I rarely find the time to sit down between creating recipes and write, not to mention plan a fancy little photoshoot in our perpetually cluttered household.  This post is different, for me anyhow.  This entry in my gastro-journal will have the sorts of pictures you'll see in most of the food blogs that seem to be crowding bandwiths nationwide.  If you Google, Yahoo, or Bing "cupcake blog" you will literally come across hundreds of Betty Crockers and Sarah Lees sporting their own recipes, or rather recipes that they've altered slightly from another blog.  I kid you not when I say I've followed the paper trail from a recipe I came across in blog that referenced back through 5 subsequent blogs to the original posted creation, which was probably pulled without credit from a periodical that rarely requires referencing in this day and age.

I'm definitely guilty of  heisting recipes from wayward blogs and outdated cookbooks procured from my local thrift store, making my alterations and taking credit thereafter, but something tells me this is how it's always been.  Prior to recent technological history how did networking in the foodie community really go down?  There was a time when recipe trading involved more tedious bookkeeping, more secrecy, and more integrity in some regard.  Sharing your best recipe with a neighbor or a friend implied quite a bit of confidence on the recipients part.  How often nowadays, while attending a potluck or dinner party, do you hear someone say, beaming with pride that their contribution to the meal is a secret family recipe? 

Food blogging lacks the romance of traditional recipe trading, but I think it's generated more inspiration for my peers to get back to our roots culinarily and agriculturally.  Whether it's due to financial hardship, concern for our future generations, or just the hip new trend, I have to say it's exciting.  My sense of creativity in the kitchen I imagine is more reminiscent of previous generations than most people my age despite the absence of stained old recipe cards.

Earlier I mentioned that I was guilty of hijacking recipes from outdated cookbooks, but this one happens to come from a more recent publication.  If you're vegan, or just interested in baking you've most likely come across Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.  I own a handful of Isa's cookbooks and I have to admit that I find her style a little kitschy; but could just stem from my distaste for punkabetties.  In any case, her cupcake book is probably that for which she gets the most praise, and for good reason.  Maybe I just failed at my attempt to execute her Pineapple Right Side Up cakes, but I felt they needed some amendments.  In this way I think can relate to those homemakers whose beloved secret recipes were probably generated in a similar manner: gathering together the aspects from one or more recipes they found pleasing, removing those they didn't, adding their own flare and customizing the final product to suit their own taste and that of the ones they choose to share their creation.

Anyhow, enough with the nostalgic sentiments, and onto the goods:

PINEAPPLE CURRY CUPCAKES w/ GINGER COCONUT BUTTERCREAM

makes 12 cupcakes

Dry:

1 1/4c AP flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp curry powder

Wet:

1 1/4c crushed pineapple in it’s own juice

1/3c canola oil

2/3c evaporated cane sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven 350*

1. Sift dry ingredients together into a mixing bowl.
2. Puree wet ingredients (set 1/4c crushed pineapple aside to mix in later) in a food processor until a lighter texture is reached
3. Make a crater in the dry ingredients, add the pureed wet ingredients and mix as little as possible with a spatula until combined.  Then mix in the reserved pineapple
4. Fill cupcake liners approximately 2/3 full.
5. Bake for 23-25 minutes.
6. Cupcakes need to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before being moved to a wire rack to finish cooling.  Top with a dollop of Ginger Buttercream and dust with more ground ginger.

Ginger Buttercream

1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted

1 cup coconut cream (see note)

1 tbsp ground ginger

1. Add coconut cream to mixing bowl and mix with a hand mixer on low,briefly
2. Sift sugar and ginger into bowl.
3. Mix together at medium speed just until combined

Adjust sugar and ginger according to your taste, but mix as briefly as possible.  The coconut cream will become runny if beaten too long.

*to make coconut cream put one can of full fat coconut milk in refrigerator and store for a few days (I've heard overnight is fine, but I kept mine in for almost a week).  The fat solids will separate from the liquid and should have the texture of butter.  The fat solids will be your coconut cream, and you can scoop them out of the can with ease.

Vegan Pumpkin Pie

Autumn in San Diego reminds me how much I miss living in the midwest.  

While composing this first entry in my new blog I am currently visiting friends in Chicago, where the air is crisp, the sidewalks are littered with an array of crimson and gold, and the inspiration for anything containing winter squash is annoyingly cliche.  However, who doesn't appreciate a good pumpkin pie recipe?  This particular pie was adapted from a recipe at www.joyofbaking.com, which called for a gingersnap/pecan layer between the pumpkin filling and the crust, I used walnuts instead but trust me, it's better.  I also roasted my own pumpkin, canned pumpkin works just as well (and is probably cheaper and definitely less time consuming) but I would still suggest roasting your own if you can and pureeing it in a food processor.  I feel the need to stress that this was my first attempt at a pumpkin pie and decided to not stray too far away from the traditional ingredients, but I must say that this is one damn good vegan dessert.

First, set your oven to 350 F

Crust

3/4 c all purpose flour

1/2 c wheat flour

1/2 t salt

1 T white sugar

1/2 c vegetable shortening (i like the ones made from palm fruit oil, non hydrogenated)

1/8 c ice water

Pulse together flour, sugar and salt in a food processor until combined.  Add shortening in pieces to the flour mixture and pulse together until all the large pieces of shortening are almost fully integrated.  Drizzle in water while the food processor is on, everything should combine fairly quick but if the dough looks too dry add a little more water.

Take your dough and form it into a ball on a countertop, cover it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes.

Dust your countertop (or a flexible cutting board, preferably)  with just a bit of flour, take out your dough ball and flatten with your hands into a disc.  Then start rolling out your dough, picking up the mass and turning it a 1/4 turn with each roll (if you don't do this it will stick to whatever surface you're rolling the dough on and will break apart and will be incredibly discouraging).  Roll to an even thickness, I prefer something around 1/8 of an inch or so.  Take the pie pan and lay it on top of the dough, then flip over the pan, dough and cutting board (if you don't have the flexible cutting board you can lift up the dough and put it in the pan, just pinch the cracks back together).  Press the dough into the bottom of the pan and trim off the excess, form into another mass, roll out the dough and cut into decorative shapes that will thoroughly impress your buddies.  Wrap in plastic and put back in the refrigerator for at least another 30 minutes.

Walnut/Gingersnap Layer

1/4 c walnuts

1/4 c broken gingersnap cookies (I like Mary's Gone Crackers Gluten Free Gingersnap Cookies)

Toast Walnuts in a hot pan until aromatic.  Pulse Cookies/Nuts in a food processor until a coarse mixture is formed.  Press evenly into the crust and then return to the refrigerator while you make the pumpkin filling.

Pumpkin Filling

1 15oz can pumpkin puree (I roasted two small sugar pumpkins and that came out to be just enough)

1/4 c apple sauce

1/4 c Artisana Coconut Butter (softened)

1/2 c So Delicious Coconut Milk Kefir, or homemade cashew cream

1/2 c light brown sugar

1 t cinnamon

1/2 t ground ginger

1/8 t ground cloves

1/2 t sea salt

Whisk all the ingredients together, use an electric hand mixer, or pull that food processor back out for a third time and puree everything together.  Pour into the chilled pie crust, bake for 45-55 minutes or until a knife inserted about an inch away from the edge comes out clean (the center might still look wet, really, it's ok).  Let the pie come to room temperature and serve with So Delicious Coconut Milk Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, or maybe a homemade vegan maple ice cream if you feel like going through the extra work and plan that far ahead.  I also rolled out that extra dough and cut a maple leaf, then brushed it with maple syrup and baked it in the oven until it had started to brown then meticulously garnished the my masterpiece.

This is how the pie came out.  I can promise you it tasted like perfection and I am quite proud to christen my new blog with this recipe.  Thanks for reading and please tell me if you try it out, nothing would tickle me more.